The International Cricket Council (ICC) is a professional body and is expected to have a professional approach while dealing with issues so that the show is run smoothly and efficiently.
One aspect it has not been able to resolve is the UDRS. Except India all member countries have accepted the UDRS but the BCCI refuses to budge.
The Cricket Committee of ICC chaired by the legendary Clive Lloyd took a decision that the UDRS will be mandatory for international matches.
India's representative Ravi Shastri attended the meeting. It's not known whether he recorded his dissent.
Funnily when the Technical Committee of the BCCI, which was chaired by Sunil Gavaskar, met in Chennai in the first week of December last year never discussed the UDRS issue, it is ambiguous which committee of the BCCI has objection to UDRS?
The Technical Committee had also recommended the VJD method developed by V. Jayadevan instead of the Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method for IPL but that recommendation was not accepted.
And now Jayadevan has been invited by the ICC to make a presentation at their Hong Kong meeting.
A few years ago BCCI objected to international T20 matches. Reluctantly India played the T20 World Championship, won it and now the same format is being encouraged by the BCCI within the country.
Contentious issues
There are certain contentious issues regarding implementation of the UDRS but those can be addressed only after applying it.
Earlier the Cricket Committee of ICC chaired by Gavaskar had made some radical changes in the rules of the game.
Some worked, some didn't, but no member country has taken the route that BCCI is taking with UDRS.
Let's take the case of day-night Test matches. The BCCI did organise a day-night Ranji Trophy final at Gwalior. There were loads of technical and health issues and the concept was quickly discarded.
There would be a dinner past midnight and players would skip breakfast because they would wake up late and they would eat a mini lunch at 11 a.m. because the game was to start at 2-30 in the afternoon.
The players, media and officials went through this crazy schedule. And now we are talking about having a day-night Test match!
Let the ICC instruct all member countries to conduct its first class matches under lights for two years.
The findings of the experiment would indicate whether it is worthwhile having day-night Test matches.
The field survey is more important than the presentations some member countries are making.
Why isn't BCCI's Technical Committee meeting being convened to discuss issues which its representative could take up with ICC's Cricket Committee?
Objecting to everything that is decided by the ICC's Cricket Committee has damaged India's reputation.
There is a limit to which one member country can flex its financial muscle to get what one wants. It's time BCCI stops objecting publicly to the decisions of the ICC especially when Sharad Pawar is the President of the ICC.
